Support your local microbes. Without them, the Earth’s surface might be buried deep beneath leaves, grass clippings, and leftover tuna casserole.
Plastics that won't be around forever.
New process developed in New Mexico entices bacteria to snack on plastic.
Scientists have figured out how to modify plastics to retain the beneficial elements of plastic, but don’t allow them to hang around in landfills for thousands of years.
Microbe prepares to munch. Not to scale.
How it works:
With this new process, a tiny amount of bio-additive material is added to plastic during manufacturing, in the same way a color is added to create green or purple plastic. This additive's chemistry is designed to attract hungry microbes to plastic surfaces. It is such a small amount of food for such tiny diners that it doesn’t affect clarity or strength, which is why we can use this treated plastic to make clear safety glasses that pass the most current ANSI eyewear safety standards.
When the plastic item is thrown away into an appropriate landfill, bacteria sense the food in the plastic, and begin to congregate for a feast. (This won’t happen until the item is thrown away and buried, because the conditions outside of the landfill aren’t “feast-friendly.”) Bacteria gather on the plastic, and when enough of them gather, a process called “quorum sensing” takes place.
True practitioners of “the more, the merrier” philosophy, bacteria secrete a substance that works like a chemical cell phone. They call all their friends to come over for dinner.
The microbial crowd gathers and breaks down the structure of the plastic, degrading it into the final products of stable humus (which balances soil pH and helps keep soils aerated) and methane (in anaerobic) or carbon dioxide (aerobic conditions).
We’ve all heard a lot recently about increased amounts of methane gas harming the environment, but the methane produced as microbes degrade a product containing this additive is a normal byproduct of microbial metabolism. Just as you produce and exhale carbon dioxide (whether you’ve eaten an apple or a triple bacon cheeseburger), anaerobic bacteria will produce methane, whether they’ve degraded (digested) a banana peel or a pair of plastic safety glasses.
Don’t worry, unless you wear these safety glasses 10 feet underground, with your head stuck in the dirt, they won’t begin to disintegrate until they are buried in a landfill.
Our Decade Bio™ and Body Glove Bio™ safety glasses meet the ANSI Z87.1-2010 (high impact) eyewear standard.
Decade Bio™ Safety Glasses |
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Decade Bio™ Sosa |
Decade Bio™ SS |
Body Glove and Body Glove Bio™ Safety Glasses |
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